Has anyone managed to fix the Port Town Wealth bug?

[GoaFan77]

So, I was reading up on some of the game mechanics and it seems there's a pretty big bug that prevents ports from increasing its wealth tier (in other words, a very poor town can never become poor). Worse, it seems other towns will not grow beyond 1 level above the poorest town in the region. This means regions with very poor ports like Anatolia (or any region after an emergent port appears) are basically doomed to be poor forever. :-( http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=462482

However, as towns can grow in wealth, that must mean the game somehow keeps track of the wealth level of your ports and towns in the save game. So I was wondering if any wizzes with the Save Game editor have managed to figure out where exactly it is stored?

[Qladstone 權鴛石]

In your very same link someone posted the answer to your question. This is a suboptimal solution but better than nothing (to set all ports to maximum wealth level at the start of the game). I wonder what will happen to ports that emerge later though. Seems like it will be annoying to try to modify the wealth of all ports periodically throughout the game.

By Ulsterman:

"Hey, it's not that complicated. In Startpos/Campaign_Env/ Campaign_model/World/Region_Manager/Region_Slot_array/region/region_slot_manager/Region_slot_array/region_slot_array/region_slot, the the 8th entry down from the top of the DB table, is a number 1-5, that number is the towns wealth. 5=Wealthy 4=Prosperous 3=Growing 2=average 1=poor This also true of things like resources (yield) but i think it's the 7th entry in that case.

If you really want more wealth, change it in your savegame. Easy as that."

[GoaFan77]

Originally posted by Qladstone:

In your very same link someone posted the answer to your question. This is a suboptimal solution but better than nothing (to set all ports to maximum wealth level at the start of the game). I wonder what will happen to ports that emerge later though. Seems like it will be annoying to try to modify the wealth of all ports periodically throughout the game.

By Ulsterman:

"Hey, it's not that complicated. In Startpos/Campaign_Env/ Campaign_model/World/Region_Manager/Region_Slot_array/region/region_slot_manager/Region_slot_array/region_slot_array/region_slot, the the 8th entry down from the top of the DB table, is a number 1-5, that number is the towns wealth. 5=Wealthy 4=Prosperous 3=Growing 2=average 1=poor This also true of things like resources (yield) but i think it's the 7th entry in that case.

If you really want more wealth, change it in your savegame. Easy as that."

That is not a solution, that is a work around. I did see that post and end up messing with the save game editor, and periodically increased the wealth of all ports by a stage, but that is most certainly annoying like you said.

[Qladstone 權鴛石]

Yea.. I really wish there was a way this bug could be fixed properly. Having to edit the save game periodically will just take the experience away. You can't possibly help the AI by modifying their ports too.

I played as Great Britain using Darth Mod. The game was really fun until many years into the game I realised my economy wasn't growing compared to my rival France despite pouring a lot of investment into growing wealth. I had France's ports blockaded, navy crushed and army isolated to their home territory. Meanwhile I was focusing on growing Britain, teching up, as well as expanding my American and Indian colonies. Just because my home province had very poor ports, caused me to suffer from the bug. ;( I eventually stopped playing because of it.

EDIT: I feel like asking Darth if he could look into this bug, but then again he has left the modding arena in the total war series, and pretty much 'finalised' his Total War mods.

[GoaFan77]

Originally posted by Qladstone:

Yea.. I really wish there was a way this bug could be fixed properly. Having to edit the save game periodically will just take the experience away. You can't possibly help the AI by modifying their ports too.

I played as Great Britain using Darth Mod. The game was really fun until many years into the game I realised my economy wasn't growing compared to my rival France despite pouring a lot of investment into growing wealth. I had France's ports blockaded, navy crushed and army isolated to their home territory. Meanwhile I was focusing on growing Britain, teching up, as well as expanding my American and Indian colonies. Just because my home province had very poor ports, caused me to suffer from the bug. ;( I eventually stopped playing because of it.

EDIT: I feel like asking Darth if he could look into this bug, but then again he has left the modding arena in the total war series, and pretty much 'finalised' his Total War mods.

If Empire is anything like Rome:Total War modding I doubt there is much any modder could do. That is a bug deep within the source code of the game and is probably inaccessable.

I haven't played Empire in a while now, but at the time I thought about making a program that could auto-update the save file and increase the wealth of any ports that probably should be increased. Then you could just run the script before each major session of the game and not have to worry about it, plus it would work on the AI ports. I determined it was possible to do but it was such a big file I didn't have time to make it. I'm sure it would also need a lot of testing for it to work safely without any risk of corrupting saves.

[Qladstone 權鴛石]

A pity; I would so love to play Empire if not for this bug ~

[Qladstone 權鴛石]

Originally posted by CPPFZGoaFan77:

If Empire is anything like Rome:Total War modding I doubt there is much any modder could do. That is a bug deep within the source code of the game and is probably inaccessable.

I haven't played Empire in a while now, but at the time I thought about making a program that could auto-update the save file and increase the wealth of any ports that probably should be increased. Then you could just run the script before each major session of the game and not have to worry about it, plus it would work on the AI ports. I determined it was possible to do but it was such a big file I didn't have time to make it. I'm sure it would also need a lot of testing for it to work safely without any risk of corrupting saves.

I might actually try to work on this solution that you suggested this coming May/June. However, I don't have any experience in modding/programming whatsoever. What are some of the skills that I need to learn in order to make such a program that you suggested? I'm willing to learn and make it if possible!

[GoaFan77]

Originally posted by Qladstone:

Originally posted by CPPFZGoaFan77:

If Empire is anything like Rome:Total War modding I doubt there is much any modder could do. That is a bug deep within the source code of the game and is probably inaccessable.

I haven't played Empire in a while now, but at the time I thought about making a program that could auto-update the save file and increase the wealth of any ports that probably should be increased. Then you could just run the script before each major session of the game and not have to worry about it, plus it would work on the AI ports. I determined it was possible to do but it was such a big file I didn't have time to make it. I'm sure it would also need a lot of testing for it to work safely without any risk of corrupting saves.

I might actually try to work on this solution that you suggested this coming May/June. However, I don't have any experience in modding/programming whatsoever. What are some of the skills that I need to learn in order to make such a program that you suggested? I'm willing to learn and make it if possible!

Well, you'll need to learn the basics of some programming language. IIRC the save files are just giant XML files, so I'm guessing either Java or Python would have the best libraries to help you deal with the structure.

[Qladstone 權鴛石]

Originally posted by CPPFZGoaFan77:

Originally posted by Qladstone:

I might actually try to work on this solution that you suggested this coming May/June. However, I don't have any experience in modding/programming whatsoever. What are some of the skills that I need to learn in order to make such a program that you suggested? I'm willing to learn and make it if possible!

Well, you'll need to learn the basics of some programming language. IIRC the save files are just giant XML files, so I'm guessing either Java or Python would have the best libraries to help you deal with the structure.

Alright, I hope it works out!